Nechtan Morbet
{{Short description|King of the Picts from 456 to 480}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox Monarch
| name = Nechtan I
| succession = King of the Picts
| reign = 456–480
| predecessor = Talorc I
| successor = Drest II
| death_date =
| death_place =
| father = Erip
}}
Nechtan, son of Erip, was the king of the Picts from 456 to 480.
The king lists supply a number of epithets for Nechtan: Morbet and Celchamoth and the Latin Magnus (the Great). He is said to have reigned for twenty-four years.Variants read thirty-four and ten years. In a rare change from a bald statement of names and years, the king lists provide a tradition linking Nechtan to the foundation of Abernethy:
"So Nectonius the Great, Wirp's son, the king of all the provinces of the Picts, offered to Saint Brigid, to the day of judgement, Abernethy, with its territories ... Now the cause of the offering was this. Nectonius, living in a life of exile, when his brother Drest expelled him to Ireland, begged Saint Brigid to beseech God for him. And she prayed for him and said: "If thou reach thy country, the Lord will have pity on thee. Thou shalt possess in peace the kingdom of the Picts."Early Sources, pp. cxx-cxxi, quoting Skene's Chronicles of the Picts & Scots.
A life of Saint Buíte of Monasterboice, after whom Monasterboice is named, claims that Buíte raised Nechtan from the dead, and associated him with Kirkbuddo in Strathmore.Early Sources, pp. cxx-cxxi.
It has been suggested that these traditions should be associated with a later Pictish king, with the very similar name of Nechtan nepos Uerb.Smyth, p. 82.
References
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Sources
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- {{citation |last=Anderson |first=Alan Orr |author-link=Alan Orr Anderson |title=Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500–1286 |volume=1 |edition=2nd |location=Stamford, Lincs. |publisher=Paul Watkins |orig-year=1922 |year=1990 |isbn=1-871615-03-8}}
- {{citation |last=Anderson |first=Marjorie O. |author-link=Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson |title=Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland |year=1980 |edition=2nd |publisher=Scottish Academic Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=0-7011-1604-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/scottishhistoric0000dona}}
- {{citation |last=Evans |first=Nicholas |journal=The Innes Review |title=Royal succession and kingship among the Picts |pages=1–48 |volume=59 |number=1 |issn=0020-157X |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2008 |doi=10.3366/e0020157x08000140 |hdl=20.500.11820/657d2747-c29d-4254-989d-eb23970a9684 |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/12600759/Royal_succession_and_kingship_among_the_Picts.pdf |hdl-access=free}}
- {{citation |last=Fraser |first=James E. |author-link=James Earle Fraser (historian) |title=From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 |series=The New Edinburgh History of Scotland |volume=I |year=2009 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-1232-1}}
- {{citation |last=Smyth |first=Alfred P. |title=Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80–1000 |series=The New History of Scotland |isbn=0-7486-0100-7 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1998 |orig-year=1984 |location=Edinburgh}}
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140615163653/http://www.kjhskj75z.talktalk.net/pictish.html Pictish Chronicle]
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{{s-bef|before=Talorc I}}
{{s-ttl|title=King of the Picts|years=456–480}}
{{s-aft|after=Drest II}}
{{end}}
{{Pictish and Scottish Monarchs}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nechtan Morbet}}
Category:5th-century Scottish monarchs
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